Living the Lawsuit: Clients Identify With Their Complaints

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=160 BGCOLOR="#333333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03cdedc2ddualp.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D"><U><B>Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FAQs"><U><B>FAQs</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Dr. Silverman"><U><B>About Dr. Silverman</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id146.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Great links"><U><B>Great links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Mind Reader© archive"><U><B>The Mind Reader© archive</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="03d64643.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#666633" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D</B></FONT>    |     <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D"><U>home</U></A></FONT></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> Living the Lawsuit: Clients Identify With Their Complaints</div> <bR> <div> One of the more difficult judgments you may have to face in representing your client in a personal injury case is the determination of whether he/she is malingering. As I wrote in a previous column, this is difficult to assess. First, with the exception of psychosis, there are no determination of definitive tests available to rule out the possibility of malingering. Second, clients can manifest pseudo-symptoms that they experience as real. Does this mean that they are lying? No. Are they crazy? No. Clients actually feel and act as if they have an injury or complaint. This is often called living the lawsuit. How does this occur?</div> <div> It is human nature to want to please others. We are social animals who want to get along. Some individuals are extreme in their need to please. These "people pleasers" are more prone to want to meet the expectations of others. Your client may take on the role of a physically or psychologically injured person to fulfill your expectations of how that client should feel. Understand, I am not talking about a conscious or deliberate process. The lawyer does not coach or rehearse the client. I am referring to a subtle or covert process in which the attorney communicates how she/he would feel if placed in similar circumstances. </div> <div> This is why so many attorneys are in a quandary when they receive negative physicals despite their trust in their client's pain and suffering. Your client can be honest and yet not accurate. A forensic psychologist can assist you in the early stages of litigation to determine the nature of your client's complaints. People pleasers tend to demonstrate specific traits in personality testing that will help you to determine if they are living the lawsuit.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>